MWD AI Assistant

A free chat assistant that answers visitors from the business information you approve, using your own OpenAI API key. No MWD account or license is needed.

How do I set it up?

1. Open MWD AI Assistant > Setup and paste your OpenAI API key. Create one at platform.openai.com. A ChatGPT subscription does not include API credits.
2. Click Test saved provider connection. It sends one small request to confirm the key, billing and model access.
3. Under Assistant, write short public business instructions: what you do, where you serve, and how visitors should contact you.
4. Under Manual Knowledge, fill in Business details (name, phone, email, contact page) and Location (address, map link, weekly opening hours; a location phone or email only when it differs). The assistant always knows them and shares them when a visitor wants to contact you, order or book.
5. Under Manual Knowledge, add approved questions and answers. Add a public link when the assistant should be able to show it.
6. Turn on Enable assistant and choose the floating widget, the shortcode, or both. The Getting started checklist on Setup shows what is still missing.
7. Clear your page cache so visitors see the change.

Where does the chat appear?

The floating widget shows on every page and keeps the same conversation while a visitor moves around your site. For inline placement, add [mwd_ai_assistant] to a Shortcode block or a page builder shortcode widget. Each inline chat has its own conversation.

How do I write good answers?

Keep each answer to one topic and phrase the question the way a visitor would ask it. The assistant searches your approved answers for words from the visitor's message, so include the words people actually use, for example both "hours" and "open". Draft answers are never used. Never put passwords, private customer details or internal notes in instructions or answers; they are sent to the AI service and may be repeated to visitors.

How do I save and review changes?

The sidebar switches sections without reloading. Edits in any section stay as drafts until you click Save all changes, or Discard to return to the saved values. If another administrator saved in the meantime, you see a conflict message and your edits stay on screen so you can reload and review. The API key field stays empty after saving; the status line tells you whether a key is stored and readable. Clear saved key takes effect when you save.

What do visitors see and control?

Visitors can start a new chat or erase the current one from the widget header. The browser only keeps a session token, never the transcript. A short notice reminds visitors that AI replies can be wrong and that they should not share sensitive information.

How are data and costs controlled?

• Conversations expire after the retention you choose, one to seven days. Recent History lets you read and permanently erase conversations.
• Common email addresses, phone numbers and postal codes are masked before storage and before the AI service sees them.
• The daily token safety limit caps usage and counts the tokens the AI service reports. Per-visitor and per-IP rates slow down abuse. Visitors behind the same network share the per-IP limit, which is set high enough for an office or a mobile network.
• WordPress privacy export and erase tools include conversations of signed-in users.

Can many visitors chat at the same time?

Yes. The plugin's limits for the whole site (3,000 new chats and 6,000 messages a minute) are far above what real visitors reach. While the AI replies, each message keeps one PHP worker of your host busy; when more messages arrive than there are workers, they wait their turn, and a message that waits longer than 55 seconds is cut off. Ask your host how many PHP workers your site has (PHP-FPM pm.max_children, or "PHP workers" on managed hosting):

• About ten people chatting at once: 5 to 10 workers.
• About a hundred people chatting actively: 20 to 30 workers.
• Hundreds of visitors who may all send at the same moment: about 50 workers, more for faster replies. Each worker needs about 50 MB of memory and one database connection.

If OpenAI is briefly overloaded or rate-limits a request, the plugin tries again within a few seconds. If your OpenAI account is out of credit, visitors see that the assistant is not available and Diagnostics shows quota.

Something is not working

Open Diagnostics. It shows the plugin version, whether the key is readable, the last provider status (for example authentication, rate_limit or quota) and today's usage, without any secret or conversation. A changed WordPress salt makes a saved key unreadable; enter it again. If the chat reports a safety limit, wait for the next minute or day, or raise the limit under Privacy & Usage.

What does the Pro add-on change?

MWD AI Assistant Pro is a separate plugin that registers with this one. It keeps your settings, answers and conversations and adds features such as website knowledge import, lead forms, more AI providers and reports. Removing Pro returns you to the free assistant with your Core data intact.

What happens on uninstall?

Data is kept by default. Tick Permanently delete Core data on uninstall under Privacy & Usage before deleting the plugin to remove its tables and settings on a single-site installation. Other plugins and licenses are never changed.

See the bundled readme.txt for the exact external services, limits and data handling.